Be Enthusiastic

Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm and success go hand in hand, but enthusiasm comes first. Enthusiasm inspires confidence, raises morale, builds loyalty! and is priceless. Enthusiasm is contagious. You can feel enthusiasm by the way a person talks, walks or shakes hands. Enthusiasm is a habit that one can acquire and practice.
Many decades ago, Charles Schwab, who was earning a salary of a million dollars a year, was asked if he was being paid such a high salary because of his exceptional ability to produce steel. Charles Schwab replied, "I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among the men the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement."
Live while you are alive. Don't die before you are dead.
Enthusiasm and desire are what change mediocrity to excellence.
Water turns into steam with a difference of only one degree in temperature and steam can move some of the biggest engines in the world.
That is what enthusiasm helps us to do in our lives.

http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/2008/05/be-enthusiastic.html

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I KNEW YOU WOULD COME

There were two childhood buddies who went through school and college and even joined the army together. War broke out and they were fighting in the same unit. One night they were ambushed. Bullets were flying all over and out of the darkness came a voice, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry immediately recognized the voice of his childhood buddy, Bill. He asked the captain if he could go. The captain said, "No, I can't let you go, I am already short-handed and I cannot afford to lose one more person. Besides, the way Bill sounds he is not going to make it." Harry kept quiet. Again the voice came, "Harry, please come and help me." Harry sat quietly because the captain had refused earlier. Again and again the voice came. Harry couldn't contain himself any longer and told the captain, "Captain, this is my childhood buddy. I have to go and help." The captain reluctantly let him go. Harry crawled through the darkness and dragged Bill back into the trench. They found that Bill was dead. Now the captain got angry and shouted at Harry, "Didn't I tell you he was not going to make it? He is dead, you could have been killed and I could have lost a hand. That was a mistake." Harry replied, "Captain, I did the right thing. When I reached Bill he was still alive and his last words were 'Harry, I knew you would come'."

***Good relationships are hard to find and once developed should be nurtured. We are often told: Live your dream. But you cannot live your dream at the expense of others. People who do so are unscrupulous. We need to make personal sacrifices for our family, friends, and those we care about and who depend on us.

http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-knew-you-would-come.html

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SMART Goals

If you ask most people what is their one major objective in life, they would probably give you a vague answer, such as, "I want to be successful, be happy, make a good living," and that is it. They are all wishes and none of them are clear goals.

Goals must be SMART:

1. S--specific. For example, "I want to lose weight." This is wishful thinking. It becomes a goal when I pin myself down to "I will lose 10 pounds in 90 days."

2. M--must be measurable. If we cannot measure it, we cannot accomplish it. Measurement is a way of monitoring our progress.

3. A--must be achievable. Achievable means that it should be out of reach enough to be challenging but it should not be out of sight, otherwise it becomes disheartening.

4. R--realistic. A person who wants to lose 50 pounds in~30 days is being unrealistic.

5. T--time-bound. There should be a starting date and a finishing date.

http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/2008/07/smart-goals.html

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THE MIDAS TOUCH

We all know the story of the greedy king named Midas. He had a lot of gold and the more he had the more he wanted. He stored all the gold in his vaults and used to spend time every day counting it.


One day while he was counting a stranger came from nowhere and said he would grant him a wish. The king was delighted and said, "I would like everything I touch to turn to gold." The stranger asked the king, Are you sure?" The king replied, "Yes." So the stranger said, "Starting tomorrow morning with the sun rays you will get the golden touch." The king thought he must be dreaming, this couldn't be true. But the next day when he woke up, he touched the bed, his clothes, and everything turned to gold. He looked out of the window and saw his daughter playing in the garden. He decided to give her a surprise and thought she would be happy. But before he went to the garden he decided to read a book. The moment he touched it, it turned into gold and he couldn't read it. Then he sat to have breakfast and the moment he touched the fruit and the glass of water, they turned to gold. He was getting hungry and he said to himself, "I can't eat and drink gold." Just about that time his daughter came running and he hugged her and she turned into a gold statue. There were no more smiles left.


The king bowed his head and started crying. The stranger who gave the wish came again and asked the king if he was happy with his golden touch. The king said he was the most miserable man. The stranger asked, "What would you rather have, your food and loving daughter or lumps of gold and her golden statue?" The king cried and asked for forgiveness. He said, "I will give up all my gold. Please give me my daughter back because without her I have lost everything wo rth having." The stranger said to the king, "You have become wiser than before" and he reversed the spell. He got his daughter back in his arms and the king learned a lesson that he never forget for the rest of his life.

*****
What is the moral of the story?
1. Distorted values lead to tragedy.
2. Sometimes getting what you want may be a bigger tragedy than not getting what you want.
3. Unlike the game of soccer where players can be substituted, the game of life allows no substitutions or replays. We may not get a second chance to reverse our tragedies, as the king did.

http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/2008/08/midas-touch.html

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IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

There was a man taking a morning wa lk at or the beach. He saw that along with the morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die. The tide was fresh and the starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked, "What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."

What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we? 

http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/2008/09/it-is-little-things-that-make-big.html

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Six Ways to Make People Like You

Most of us want to be liked by others.

The trouble that the vast masses of humanity have with this is that they run smack into their own selfishness. Because of their own self-fixation, they end up repelling the very people they want to like them. Sometimes that selfishness comes out in down right rudeness. But more often it is more a case that they bore people to death.

Did you know you can even be a very exciting speaker and still bore people to death? People who are successful in their relationships know it.

Successful people who relate well with others have learned a simple truth. And that is this: People are more interested in themselves than any other subject.

If you want to have more success in your relationships here are six simple things you can do.

1. Be genuinely interested in other people – We had some company in town this weekend. And I was first on call at work which meant that we had to be creative on how I would be able to spend time with our guests. Saturday night I had to work, but I was able to break free a little earlier than expected. So I went downtown and waited for my group on a bench near some restaurants where we were planning to eat.

Before long a young couple sat down next to me while they waited to get into one of the nearby restaurants. I got the distinct feeling they were on a date. They were in love. Sometimes you can just tell.

But the guy was failing miserably at this first point here.

It was obvious that he liked his date. He was trying so very hard to impress her. In fact he was trying so hard that the entire time they were on the bench next to me he told story after story about his “amazing” exploits on the baseball field.

Now I like baseball well enough, but even I got bored of his talking fairly quickly. I can only imagine what his date was thinking. (Yawn.)

So often we are like that guy on the bench. We desperately want to impress someone. And we fell that to do that we have be able to share with them how much we know. We try to dazzle them with our brilliance, so to speak.

We get it backwards.

You want to impress someone? Be genuinely interested in them and their interests. Find out what makes them tick. Do the things they want to do. Affirm their opinions and choices.

Do you have trouble agreeing with others? Well try baby steps. Start with not completely shutting them down whenever they express themselves and their opinions. It is possible to be liked by people who have vastly different values than yours.

The best example I think of where someone got along especially well with folks with differing values is Jesus. Here’s a holy man, a guy who founded one of the largest religions of all time, and who did he spend most of his time with? Prostitutes, thieves, partiers – the rough crowd. The religious people of his day were scandalized by his associations. They called him a “friend of sinners.”

Those people were strongly attracted to Jesus and liked him even though he didn’t share their values. Why? Because Jesus was genuinely interested in them and their well being. He went through life with a passionate interest in others.

If you want people to like you then do the same thing.

2. Smile – It is amazing to me how effective a tool a simple smile can be to unlocking doors and getting people to like me.

I am one of those unfortunate folks who has a naturally “intense” face. Smiling isn’t something that comes naturally for me for whatever reason. My wife will tell me that I look angry much of the time. Fortunately for me she knows that I’m not mad. I’m just not thinking about smiling.

Even though smiling doesn’t come naturally for me I’ve found it well worth the effort.

I was in a bank about a week ago. It was not my usual bank, but for the transaction I needed to make it was the one I had to go to. Friday must have been payday because it was a bit crazy there that afternoon. As I waited in line I noticed how tense and stressed everyone in the room seemed to be.

When my turn came and I stepped up to the teller, I made it a point to smile. I guess it was a tremendous contrast to the other folks that she’d dealt with that afternoon. When my business was done and she handed my paperwork back to me she said, “I waived the fee. Have a nice day.”

That was totally unexpected. But apparently a smile will go a long way toward making people like you.

3. Remember people’s names – It is said that the sweetest sound to a person’s ears is their own name. You can get a long way down the road of making people like you if you make it a practice to use their name in the conversation.

I admit, of all these points, this is likely the one that is the most challenging for me at this point. But with work, by focusing on it, I am steadily improving.

If it is a hard thing for you, start where it is easy just to build the habit.

When you are in a situation where the person you are talking to is wearing a name tag, make it a point to use their name. Even if it is just the check out clerk at the grocery store.

In fact anytime you are in a position to make a purchase from someone and the sales person is wearing a name tag, use their name. Start doing it just to build the habit. You might be amazed by the results.

I used Juanita’s name in our conversation a the bank last week in addition to smiling. (It actually amazes me that I remember her name now. But I guess that’s proof we remember folks who do unexpected nice things for us, isn’t it?) My intention wasn’t to get anything special from that interaction other than my completed transaction. But by applying these techniques I got a whole lot more when she waived the bank fees.

4. Ask questions – and then shut up – You want to become a good conversationalist? Ask questions.

In sales situations they say that the person asking the questions is the one controlling the conversation. But the hard part is being genuinely interested in what the other person is saying. You have to shut up and genuinely listen to what they are saying. You can’t be thinking about what you are going to say next. So many times sales people totally miss that point. Like so many of us they don’t even let their prospect finish what they are saying before they are on to something else. It is proof that they weren’t even listening to what the other person was saying in the first place.

The beauty of it is, if you do this successfully, you will never have to worry about running out of things to talk about. Because if you are genuinely listening to what the other person is saying you will naturally see other questions you can ask them to keep the conversation rolling.

If you want a good cheat to get you started asking questions, here is an acronym I use: F.O.R.M.

F. Family – Where are they from? Do they have kids? Are they married? Etc.
O. Occupation – What do they do for a living? Then ask questions about that type of work.
R. Recreation – What do they do for fun? What are their interests?
M. Motivation – Why are they in town? What hobbies do they have? Why do they have those interests?

5. Talk about subjects that are interesting to others – Remember that couple on the park bench? the woman was doing a great job letting the fella talk about his interests. But I get the feeling the guy was failing miserably.

If you want other people to like you, let them do all the talking. Remember, people are more interested in themselves than any other subject. They want to talk about their stuff, not your stuff.

It may even feel painful at first. You may think, “Oh, I have a great story that ties in with that point.”

But if you want to make people like you, don’t tell your story. Ask them a question that leads to another story of their own. Be interested in what they are interested in and they will think highly of you.

This principle even works when you are interviewing for a job. That’s a situation when you have to impress someone else, right?

Well some of my most successful interviews were the ones where I talked the least. I just kept asking questions of the interviewer, about the company, the position, even about the interviewer personally.

It amuses me how backwards I’ve had things most of my life. I thought I had to share how much I knew and how skilled I was to impress people. But the truth is they are far more impressed by how interested I am in what is important to them.

6. Give sincere compliments – This one is also incredibly easy. Just pick something you can appreciate about the person you are talking with and let them know it.

Do they have nice hair? Eyes? Clothes? Jewelry? Car? A cool techno-gadget?

Make it a point to tell them. Ask them questions. Get them talking about it.

Who knows? The person you are talking to may be starving for a compliment. It could open all kinds of doors for you.

And it is so very simple.

If you are a reader, you might recognize some of these ideas from Dale Carnegie’s classic How To Win Friends and Influence People
. It is a classic work that you can read to learn successful skills for relating to other people. I highly recommend reading it to anyone who is wants to be more successful.

Enjoy!

Read more: http://successcreeations.com/11/six-ways-to-make-people-like-you/#ixzz1xIxoueU8

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